What is this?

The Canadian dollar slid briefly below the 71-cent mark on Wednesday morning, a value not seen since the early days of 2003.

To put that into perspective, Finding Nemo was still in movie theatres and Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister.

The renewed pressure is coming from – what else – sliding oil prices, which have directly fed into the loonie’s 23 per cent fall against the U.S. dollar since January 2014. Oil was down more than 3 per cent Wednesday morning, to $34.83 a barrel (U.S.).

A dicey domestic economy that’s being battered by a broader downturn for basic commodities because of weakening demand abroad (namely from China) is also weighing on the currency, Scotia said in an updated forecast.

“Low oil prices and sluggish domestic growth will count against the CAD in the coming year.”

The bank’s experts suggest the loonie may bottom out at between 69 cents through 2016.